The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

JU LY/AUGUST

1991

1. Privilege - and the possible loss of the privilege which be- longs to the client. If privilege is not extended to all members of an M.D.P., then there is a serious risk that it would be lost whether on discovery or other- wise. It must be emphasised that this is not for the benefit of lawyers or the legal profession and is not to be confused with t he simple ob l i ga t i ons of confidence that other pro- fessions may regard as binding on them. 2 . Professional Indemnity - will the lawyers professional in- demnity extend to acts by the non lawyers in the partnership or will it be necessary to structure a special indemnity policy to cover all acts by any of the partners in any of their respective disciplines? and will the partnership then be faced with premiums by reference to the discipline that carries the highest risk? 3 . Compensation Fund - is this to be extended to dishonesty by non-lawyer partners? and if so, will they be required to contri- bute appropriately to the Com- pensation Fund? If the answer to these two questions is in the negative, then how is the liability of the Compensation Fund to be determined in the case of acts of dishonesty by a non-lawyer partner? 4 . Discipline - It would seem that prima facie each partner would be governed by the disciplinary requirements of his own body. How does this affect the lawyer, however, in relation to conduct of non-lawyer partners and in his capacity as an officer of the Court or other matters? A most important point here is that the entire structure of property transactions in this coun t ry at the moment functions very largely on soli- citors undertakings in relation to a variety of matters: these undertakings in turn are under- pinned by the disciplinary conduct and the sanctions that can be imposed on a solicitor for any unprofessional conduct in- volving breaches of under- takings.

Perhaps, there are some solu- tions to the foregoing problems but they are not very obvious and as of now, the difficulties strike me as being^ almost insurmountable. Donal G. Binchy

FOR SALE / TO LET 6, Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8. (Adjacent to Four Courts) PLEASE CONTACT Peter McDonnell Michael J. O'Neill & Son, Solicitors, 5, Inns Court, Winetavern Street, Dublin 8. Tel: 6795500 Fax : 6795457 To improve the marketing aspect of SFS, we have compiled a slide presentation which will help the member firms identify the financial needs of their clients. Coupled with that for each solicitor within the member firms we have designed a short questionnaire or checklist which will be of assistance in identi- fying clients requirements in this area. These checklists will be distributed over the coming weeks. It has been decided to allocate a sum of £6,000 towards promotion- al activities designed to increase the public profile of the scheme, and ultimately, the volume of business. Suggestions from member firms are of course welcome. For any further information, con- tact the Law Society or the Solicitors Division, Sedgwick Dineen.

SOLICITORS FINANCIAL SERVICES SFS There are now 274 member firms in SFS, representing an increase of 10% on last year's membership. The success of the scheme is reflected in the number of new firms joining each month. Indeed, we would hope to reach our target of 300 by the end of the year. A comprehensive corporate plan has been developed and approved by the board of SFS. Some of the main objectives are: — • Increase the number of member firms. • Increase practice income of member firms. • Establish a favourable public profile of SFS.

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